Safety lessons taught before grape harvest

In preparation for this year’s grape harvest season, the Lodi District Grape Growers Association along with the Lodi Winegrape Commission held a safety seminar Thursday morning.

“It went really well,” Lodi District Grape Growers Association President Jason Eells said. “We do it annually, and we have good participation. Everybody gets a refresher on harvest safety because it’s the most dangerous time of the year for us because a lot of equipment is moving around on the roadways, and we harvest at night time with machines and then during the day we hand pick.”

According to Eells, about 250 grape growers and their employees attended the seminar, and topics addressed during the seminar included mechanical harvester safety, night work safety, tractor safety, heat illness prevention and first aid procedures.

The mechanical harvesting and nighttime safety portion of the seminar focused on general rules for operating the machines, such as keeping hands away from the fans and being careful around the conveyor belt.

For night time safety, they were advised to wear reflective gear, have proper lighting on machines and tractors and to be aware of their surroundings while maintaining clear communication with the machine operator.

Grape growers and vineyard employees were reminded to be aware of the other cars on the road, and to avoid extreme slopes in order to prevent rollovers during the tractor safety portion of the seminar.

They were also advised to make sure their lights and all of their equipment is working properly.

Those picking grapes during the daytime were reminded to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water, have proper shade and not to work too late in the day.

Eells felt that having the seminar each year is very beneficial to grape growers and helps to keep the number of harvest accidents low each year.

“Some of the larger farms have their own safety seminars on their own ranch,” Eells said. “This is offered to everybody who may not be able to have their own seminar. It’s a real benefit to the medium and smaller growers, and they can send their employees to get trained. I think it definitely helps minimize injuries.”

Eells is unsure of how many accidents have occurred in the last couple of years, but says it’s not that many.

“You don’t hear about too many major accidents, so we must be doing something right,” he said.

According to Eells, most accidents tend to occur on the roadways when the machinery is moving from one field to another.

“It’s usually motorists that aren’t paying attention to the farm equipment, that are speeding on the county roads,” he said.